XIV. Red Door. January 25, 2020
>driving Lyft
>pick up teenage daughter and father
>or niece and uncle or something, doesn’t matter
>girl is professionally dressed in suit jacket
>man is professionally dressed in painter’s pants and a tshirt
>They hold a box full of light fixtures on their laps
>Girl is texting furiously on the phone for duration of ride
>her dad or uncle is telling stories, one after the other
>sometimes she interjects, but mostly quiet
>he’s not really talking to me
>”Worst paint I ever painted was lime-green. Lady wanted a lime-green house. Lady was all “put another coat. And another coat.” And I asked her how dark she wanted it, because the more coats it get darker. But it was lime-green. Who in hell want a lime-green house? It’s down there on Fourth Street. Buncha brick houses all around the lime-green house. What she want people to say? ‘There go the lady with the lime house?”
>”Mama say she want you to paint a red door,” says the girl.
>”You tell her I ain’t painting no red door. No red doors. You Google what a red door means.”
>”It means red door,” says the girl. “Why everytime you say colors gotta mean something? They don’t mean EVERYTHING.”
>”Colors mean a lots of things. Colors mean things. Roses. Roses mean things.”
>silence for awhile
>”When I was twenty I could sure run from the cops. One time down there on Apalachee I was speeding. Saw a cop hit his lights and do a u-turn. I got scared, real scared. I turned off my lights and just started turning corners, left right left. It was pitch black out there. No moon. I backed into a field and just set there.”
>Girl says, “Pitch black? How’d you see to drive?”
>”You can see REAL good when you’re scared. Scared is scared, and it’s like you get superpowers. I was in an ‘82 Honda. I was so scared, I pulled down the backseat and rolled myself into the trunk. I knew he could drive by with his lights on and not see anybody sitting in the car. I hoped he wouldn’t get out and feel the hood because then he would know.”
>Girl says, “Did he find you?”
>they look at each other for a beat
>both burst out laughing
>ride ends